“Not even this much”: Iain Duncan Smith demonstrates how much he cares about the damage his policies are doing to public health, and to the public finances. (Image: Evening Standard)

When it comes to Iain Duncan Smith, it seems the point still isn’t being made forcefully enough.

So let us be perfectly clear: This man is a liability to the United Kingdom. He is costing this country billions of pounds with his failed pet projects like Universal Credit, his contracted-out work programmes that are more likely to hinder people looking for a job then get them into one, and even his enormous expenses claims – £39, just for breakfast!

Now it seems he has lied to Parliament – yet again. He told the House of Commons, and the country at large, that his Department for Work and Pensions expected to write off £34 million of investment in the IT systems being developed to administer his real-time, six-benefits-in-one Universal Credit. The actual amount, revealed to Parliament’s public accounts committee yesterday, is more like £161 million.

Not only that, but he was lying when he said he had been monitoring the project constantly. If that is true, then why was a civil servant’s personal assistant allowed to sign off contracts when the responsibility lay with himself, or at least his ministers?

Even more damning, it seems the DWP has spent the last six months sitting on this information, rather than actually doing anything about it!

And this odious little liar last week tried to blame the civil service for Universal Credit’s failure. He is a lower form of life than an intestinal worm.

He described her call to abolish the tax as “outrageous”, claiming that it undermined the impartiality of the UN. Isn’t it more accurate to say that she has revealed the truth, and now he is panicking?

He said he wanted UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to investigate Ms Rolnik’s conduct – a line already pointlessly taken by Grant Shapps, all of whose claims were lies, as we discovered yesterday.

In the Daily Mail, he said she had not asked ministers or officials for their input, adding: “I find it staggering that without this official information Mrs Rolnik feels she is in a position to be able to properly prescribe what the future of the policy should be.” In fact, she met many officials and government representatives, all of whom are listed in her preliminary report.

So IDS – or RTU, as we like to describe him here (it refers to Army personnel who are Returned To Unit for failing to make the grade) – has lied again. And he joined a deeply dodgy cadre of Conservatives in denouncing her for – among other things – being born in a country with worse deprivation than the UK. Doesn’t that put her in an excellent position to point out the faults in our system?

But then, what can we expect from this vile creature. There are strains of syphilis with more charm and social grace.

Is the point made yet?

Back in May, Vox Political published ‘Iain Duncan Smith has committed contempt of Parliament and should be expelled’. That article has been read by more than 12,600 people who almost unanimously supported it. Now we see that he has shown the same contempt, to Parliament, to the British people, and now to a respected and senior United Nations representative. Go back and refresh your memory if you need to do so.

Is the point made now?

No, it probably isn’t.

The fact of the matter is that most people won’t care, because most people don’t think they are affected by the disasters Iain Duncan Smith is inflicting on us.

They are wrong.

Just go back and consider the cost of all his mistakes: Billions of pounds wasted. Possibly tens of billions, when you consider the cumulative effect (although this would be a hard concept for him; he has resisted all attempts to get his Department to provide a cumulative assessment of his regressive changes’ effect on this country’s poor for many months, claiming it would be “too difficult”).

Tens of billions of pounds have been wasted on his so-called attempts to cut the benefit bill, while that bill has increased, year on year, because of his government’s policies.

As Adlai Stevenson said of Nixon (and the comparison to Nixon is well-deserved): “He is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree and then mount the stump to make a speech for conservation.”

This hypocrite does not speak for you. He doesn’t speak for the taxpayers because he is robbing them of their hard-earned money and wasting it despicably. He doesn’t speak for the unemployed, the sick or the disabled because he is a social darwinist who would steal a wheelchair to see how the owner managed without it. He doesn’t speak for Parliament because he has lied to Parliament.

Deplorable scumbag. A bald, uptight, compulsive liar and a failed waste of DNA. I hope his eventual death is long, slow and very painful as payback and karma for the damage he’s done and the 1000’s who’ve died due to his vile policies…

All that is out there is a petition which has not got as many signatures as I would like to see. Perhaps another petition worded differently and demanding his resignation? An open letter that everyone could send to either their own MP or to the PM himself, or both?
Could others think of ideas that could help his downfall?
An open letter to the EU, or one to the UN?
We have to do something. A protest outside the House of Commons? Downing Street?
Anything and all the things I’ve mentioned?

He’ll probably (hopefully?) engineer his own downfall. After blaming all the problems with UC on civil service workers, if the CS weren’t already dropping an occasional spanner in the works, then they will be now!

There are many who Despise what this man is doing on Social net working sites But many many more who don’t have computers, Just a thought but would it help to get people to sign for his resignation out side of supermarkets or in town centres? If there were enough people prepared to did this in their own time I think the results might be very different.

we have to take to the streets they are not gong to budge this is going the wrong way because all people do is write on this internet to let of steam we need more i cant stand another 19 months of these parasites

What a bloody good article! Will be circulating far and wide. We need people like you to keep exposing the lies that this disgusting.government peddle day in and day out, as part of their determination to demoniise and kill off the poor, sick and vulnerable. Solidarity and massive respect to you mate.

Ms Rolnik’s recommendations/observations being pushed aside and glossed over on grounds that she’s from a country where there are some problems with inadequate housing is nothing other than a (failed) attempt to divert people’s attention away from what she found/reported. It’s political debate at the level of an(pre-school) playground & the point that are venereal diseases out there with more grace & charm (than IDS/RTU) describes him up perfectly.

(In)effectively, the responses to her preliminary report have been to say “My brother’s bigger than yours” and “I’m going to call you a name & then run away”.

I love this article because it resonates with my beliefs, however, your liberal use of emotive language instead of letting the facts speak for themselves, leaves me feeling that to agree would involve me in a ‘witch hunt’.

We have to keep pointing out that this ISN’T incompetence. Benefits policy has been based on advice from the US insurance company UNUM since 1993. They fund the “research” it’s based on. They (along with A4E) provide the “experts” who advise ministers. They pay for lavish seminars and conferences to get politicians and the media on message.

The objective is to make it clear to working people in the UK that they cannot rely on the state benefits their taxes have paid for. The aim is to see millions more of them paying £20+ a month for one of UNUM’s back up plans. They stand to profit to the tune of literally billions of pounds taken from the British people in order to provide something that had already been paid for. It is theft on a grand scale, and working people are the intended victims. The sick, disabled, and unemployed, are simply collateral damage.

It should also be noted that both IDS and Grant Shapps have extensive financial interests in property. When they criticise Rolnik we should bear in mind that what they are defending is something they have instituted which just so happens to be likely to lead to large sums of money heading directly for their own wallets.

They thought that the UN special rapporteur would not dare criticize them, top tories and civil servants so they gave her a miss, such small mindedness from a bunch of tossers.
They wont build any affordable housing because this would spoil their plan of driving house prices up untill the next election, they need to be able to tell the house owning community how much better off they are with the rising value of their assets. Just like that last tory PM did, um, what was her name.
My apologies for bringing back bad memories

The worst part is the fact that they are attacking her beliefs now to lessen her credibility. Its the worst kind of clutching at straws, if anyone came anywhere close to criticising christian tories they would be up in arms. It disgusts me that lesser known or ‘small’ religious beliefs are still persecuted in this manner, were I to go into politics I would probably be attacked as a wiccan no matter what I was advocating

Hi Mike
Sorry if I’ve come across as rude, but my computer is not to being used so much, and internet signal is as dodgy as the ‘Plebs’ who we are in discussing! So whilst it was a psychotic moment, I turned into me again for first time in years and out came all the letters, papers and ‘good stuff’ I have. Now i’m being cagy because ‘technically’ I shudn’t have a brain and I am awaiting ‘ verdict’ on if i’m worthy to breathe this air so I have to be careful. Then I dared have another, but that made me angry. Why am I feeling like something you’d scrape off your shoe, but I remembered reading an article about the London Low life in 1775 and states ‘Lord Kames’ (without prejudice) proclaimed:-‘Knowledge is a dangerous acquisition to the labouring poor; no good would come of training the lowborn to think for themselves. there is physical evidence of unchastity and were beyond moral improvement. Treating b……s like normal could expand thoughts of inheritance! But those East End Low Life things are my ancestors and i’m proud of them! Now I come from a massive family, and to date lost over 100 in the great War, My amazing Grandad signed up aged 14, lived, married my amazing Grandma, bought 8 kids up, then my Granded served in the Home Guard in WW2, my Dad spent 9th b’day on first day of BlitZ, my uncle was a rear gunner, my aunty in WRAAF, bombed out twice after war moved to this lovely place lose home in 1950s floods! They are no Low life, if my Grandma was here now, and saw the way we are being treated, it makes you wretch to think such a loss of lives with more moral fibre in a pinhead, and the fact it is happening to disabled people brings new meaning to scum but i’m out of practice! My point is, if there was any more proof needed to get back that ‘inner fight’ something could be done you have only had a fraction of what my tale is, but the ‘alleged professional who gave me the A.S.B.O or its as good as is a prominent member of the government, and if people had a doubt, I have the proof of what ‘foundling’ he is. Now my grandma would have knocked him clean out now, at 5ft nothing, and me for allowing it to happen, but these people are good at making you grateful for every crumb. Go onto website, an MP is ranting that how can a convicted wife beater be allowed to carry on in government so we need total transparency! I totally agree so I will gladly start with what names he called to me to a friend! Why should I have to tell sumone who will deem me fit 4 work cus I can move an arm, but at 45, I refuse to tell a cardboard cutout if im incontinent, so, although i.m being cagey, happy to spill beans but would you tell me how to because i’d hate to not have the pleasure of seeing the so called Professional who comes because ill have some ex colleagues here as witness to ensure I don’t get dragged off to jail, I might lose my money I get, as a current scrounger, but I forgot, I paid in2 system for 30 years, yes that’s right, I started work at 16. If there is any1 more worthy of ‘foundling’ its our P.M, how can you disrespect his son who, as my m8 said is a special gift has left me speechless, and im saying that cus I was bullied all my life with a bad stammer, so know a little of what persecution means. Its well known that disabled people are usually as sharp as a tack, but there are 2 of the worlds most afflicted running country. we are a laughing stock, my brother showed me a pic that’s doing the rounds in Australia. Now I cant talk to him on facebook, cus although I have enduring social phobia and that is true, I haven’t been out in 5 yrs, but cant really claim 2 be 1 if I go on2 a social network site! I’m too old 4 games but I don’t mind if it saves 1 person from soul thieves.

Forget about the lies and the billions of pounds wasted. The real question is: How many men and women has Iain Duncan Smith helped into an early grave by means of his welfare reforms. I would hazard that IDS has indirectly killed far more of his countrymen than a monster like Assad has in Syria to date.

How bloody right you are mate and worst of all he is still getting away with it. How can they control the media to such an extent? this should be on BBC each and every night until which time the whole country rises up.

They can do it because that’s what conservative governments do, taking a page from Stalin and Hitler. Look at Australia, look at Canada. Look at the USA too. The media are owned by conservatives, and will do anything to promote the conservative agenda. They are not hampered by facts; they have their partisan faith to guide them.

I believe i have found the most up to date,explicitly truthful meaning of the word OXYMORON. And that is [haha] compassionate conservatives. I would like to think you will preserve all that has gone on under this mob, so it can be shown to anybody who is thinking of voting for them in the future as a warning what to expect.

I see that Duncan Smith has been highly economical with the truth yet again, claiming that he is beginning ” to get to grips with the £24billion housing benefit bill left behind by Labour. ” The actual facts show that the Housing Benefit bill left by Labour was just under £20bn pa and that HB spending in real terms in the last 13 years of the previous Tory government was nearly double that of Labour. Also, they show that claimant numbers under the last Tory government rose by 1.3 million, came down by 200,000 under Labour before increasing by 500,000 under the coalition!

BROKEN BRITISH POLITICS – WHO IS BACKING THE TORIES
Labour were often referred to as the Looney Left,hinting at Communism by Tories.The Tory Party are referred to as the Nasty Party by us the General Public,why – because they have no consideration for anyone except their Money Making Cohorts.They are Thieving from the Public Purse to Line their own pockets.Their Lies & Deceit hold no bounds.They have Isolated the Working Class ,Finance runs this Country we are no more than an International Money Laundering outfit for the Benefit of the Corrupt Money Moguls that back Privatisation.Privatisation deprives the ‘working class’ of any revenue for social cohesion.They massage the Unemployment figures for their own benefit because high unemployment doesent look competent but suits their agenda of an easily sackable work force to give Private Companies cheap Labour.Lansley ex Health minister is making a killing over the NHS,as are many others BS Tories.http://brokenbritishpolitics.simplesite.com

Mike, the question that any bemused political journalist should surely be pondering by now is – who is backing IDS? He seems more teflon-coated than Cameron, Cameron seems scared of sacking him, he pursues his American-Right style agenda in defiance of any and all contrary evidence. He behaves more like the Tory leader than Cameron. This must mean powerful patronage – from whom? Chairman of the Fed? Rothschilds? Rockefellers? Koch Brothers? [Add nomination of your choice here…………………………………..]. Does anyone have any idea?

It seems this man is incapable of telling the truth about ANYTHING, he even lied on his CV, a sacking offence for most of us but this idiot ends up a politician and not a very good one at that. His constituents must be stupid, the Tory party, well nuff said, the public for putting up with his reforms which are Death Sentences to a lot of people and through it all he has that smug look on his face, someone please wipe it off.

@Mike Sivier – I agree that IDS’s behaviour and attitudes are contemptible, but, frankly, let them speak for themselves. Calling him names does nothing to help the validity of your arguments and makes it easier for people to dismiss your valid points.

This has been an interesting experiment. What we’ve discovered is that, if an article sticks to the facts, people read it but don’t bother to act on the information, and if it includes emotive language, MORE people read it – but then some of them complain about the language used. I wonder if anybody has actually acted on the closing words.

Can we not just grab this scrote by the scruff of his neck and throw him in a sewer pit to live out the rest of his sorry life. This cretin just makes me sick and the despair he has cost people is just horrifying. Other than that can we not just put him out of our misery,A quick shot to the head. A painful and slow death will be too good for it.

You’re really missing the point here. The real cancer rotting out the heart of the DWP is unelected welfare Minister David Freud, from whose malignant brain most of the worst welfare reforms originally sprang. IDS is too stupid to fully understand the extend of the harm, pain, misery, and death is resulting from the Tory welfare programme but Freud isn’t. Freud understands perfectly exactly what is going on and doesn’t care; this person is as near to evil as might be imagined. Freud not IDS is the worm in the apple.

Oh, I disagree. Freud is bad enough, certainly – he started out working for Labour and then jumped ship to become a Tory lord when he realised Labour weren’t going to keep power. He has been extremely influential in both Labour and Tory policymaking. But RTU is the man pushing everything through. He’s the public face of it all and therefore he is the one to defeat. Freud will have his comeuppance as well and it should end with a long term of imprisonment (in my opinion).

This cretin will be handsomely rewarded for the damage he has inflicted on the uk. Not to mention the abject misery and hardship he has inflicted on the poorest members of society. This person represents the spiteful cruel true face of the conservatives.

“I have the rope I just need the opportunity and support from others.”

sure there are a lot of unemployed joiners more than willing to help build a gallows for that noose!

in all seriousness,a citizens arrest should be made on him….somehow.
sociopath with a heart of darkness.(i know some may say he has no heart but somethings got to pump that sewerage like blood around his shell of a body.

Is he demonstrating the size of his todger, integrity, intelligence, brain, success, his truths, future, or what. This man is undoubtably a hard line Fascist, as trustworthy as an angry poisonous snake. The man is dangerous he’s killed thousands via his Fascist policies and will continue to do so. However, he’s not as dangerous as his leader and protecter Cameron. To kill a snake you must cut off the head, going for it’s tail often results in a vicious attack which can be total disaster, so, Cameron first and the rest will follow him down.

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